As a Kentucky instructor counts the brand new college students who will likely be getting into his classroom this fall, he’s additionally counting his blessings, which incorporates the thriving household of six that turned his when he adopted a pupil and his siblings.
“Our lives are complete,” Justin Padgett of Danville, Kentucky, advised Fox Information Digital.
“We have left it all up to God to put us where we need to be at the right time. I feel fulfilled.”
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The journey started throughout the COVID-19 pandemic within the spring of 2021.
Padgett, who was educating fifth grade at Highland Elementary College in Lincoln County, Kentucky, was lastly in a position to train his college students in particular person through the ultimate 9 weeks of faculty.
A decide makes it official: Kasey Padgett (second from left) and Justin Padgett (far proper) formally adopted their kids Jayden, Hailey, Alexis and Jase in March 2022. (Kasey Padgett)
One in every of his college students, Jayden, had fallen behind on a few of his schoolwork — as many children did throughout COVID.
“I was helping tutor him, one-on-one with reading and social studies,” Padgett stated.
“We were just trying to help support his academics. That’s when he called me over to his computer one day and just said, ‘I have to be adopted.’”
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The boy had typed the identical phrases on his laptop — so Padgett pulled him into the corridor to speak.
The fifth grader stated that his present foster mother and father couldn’t undertake him — and his three siblings — and that his start household had misplaced their rights.
The Padgett household will get dressed up for Halloween in Waynesburg, Kentucky. (Kasey Padgett)
So he and his siblings needed to be adopted, he stated — and he hoped it may very well be accomplished by his instructor.
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“He was nice to me, and he always helps me,” Jayden himself advised Fox Information Digital.
“He was a very loving particular person, so I simply needed him to like me and my household.”
Padgett known as Kayden’s foster mother — then went house to talk along with his spouse, Kasey.
“We love telling our story. It’s a blessing to us to be able to share and to see the response that people have toward us.”
“I stated, ‘Hey, I’ve got a kiddo in my class that needs to be adopted, and he’s got three siblings,” Padgett said.
“I asked her, ‘What are your thoughts about that? How would you feel about that?’”
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The couple, who married in 2018, had been hoping for a kid of their very own.
However “that just wasn’t in the cards for us,” Kasey Padgett stated.
She desperately needed to be a mother, however the docs advised her to offer it time.
The Padgett household is pictured throughout a visit to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. (Kasey Padgett)
“I really started praying about it,” Kasey Padgett stated.
“I thought, ‘There’s got to be a way,'” she added. “I’ve a few family and friends members who are foster mother and father, and so they stored encouraging us and telling us we might be nice foster mother and father.”
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The couple began courses to arrange them for fostering a toddler.
They have been close to the top of their coaching and ready for a house research when Jayden made his plea.
“I really started praying about it.”
“That really expedited [things],” Justin Padgett stated.
In April 2021, they started the method.
Preserving the 4 siblings collectively
“The kids were part of a program called Wendy’s Wonderful Kids,” Justin Padgett stated of The Dave Thomas Basis for Adoption, a nationwide nonprofit devoted to discovering households for the 140,000-plus kids ready to be adopted from foster care within the U.S.
The muse performed a giant position in retaining the 4 siblings collectively.
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“We started making connections with their social worker and she kind of vetted us to make sure we knew what we were signing up for. And then we started [the] visits.”
The Padgetts began by taking the children — Jayden, Hailey, Alexis and Jase — to church, the place they served as youth leaders.
“We started picking them up in the church van,” Justin Padgett stated, “and so they began going to church with us.”
The Padgett household has numerous journey firsts they’re hoping to cross off their bucket record. Just lately, they visited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. (Kasey Padgett)
The Padgetts didn’t share with the children that they is likely to be adopted.
“Life can happen, and, you know, we could back out or something could change in the court system,” stated Justin Padgett. “They ended up finding out, but we were already having weekend visits at that point and getting their rooms ready.”
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On the finish of July 2021, the children moved in with their new foster household.
“I really liked it because we didn’t have to get split up and be with someone else,” Alexis, 12, advised Fox Information Digital.
The Padgetts lived in a small farmhouse when it was simply the 2 of them. In order that they moved into a three-bedroom home — which they rapidly outgrew.
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The household has since moved to Danville, the place Justin Padgett now works for the Kentucky College for the Deaf.
The household of six stopped on the Gettysburg Nationwide Army Park whereas visiting Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. (Kasey Padgett)
The adoption turned official on March 3, 2022.
“We’re very non secular, so we have seen them spiritually develop, which has been superb for us. They’ve grown a lot,” stated Justin Padgett.
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The mother and father stated they hope individuals will consider teenage children — not simply little ones — when contemplating adoption.
“At that age, they’ve been through so much trauma — being removed from their home, going through foster care — that they really need special love and attention,” Kasey Padgett stated.
“It’s not all sunshine or rainbows, but we persevere through the hard times and we work together.”
“And they are going to need resources for mental health, as well as guidance and assistance getting into college or trade school or wherever they go in life,” she added.
Kasey Padgett stated she and her husband are contemplating attempting to have a toddler naturally, or adopting one other youngster.
“The doors are open for whatever God has for us,” she stated.
Justin Padgett and his spouse rapidly turned a household of six. They stated they hope their story encourages another person to think about fostering or adoption. (Kasey Padgett)
The Padgetts stated they hope their story encourages another person to think about fostering or adoption — even a instructor.
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“It’s a calling. You are in place of the parent when [the kids are] at school. You’re in charge of keeping them safe, and there are those bonds and connections that form,” stated Justin Padgett.
“It’s very easy for a teacher to segue into being in charge of a kid at school and then possibly being able to take them into foster care or adoption.”
